SEATTLE, Wash. — The Regence Foundation recently awarded $166,000 to Providence Centralia Hospital to expand access to palliative care services in that community.

"When patients with serious illness talk about the kind of care and support they want, they often describe palliative care," said Kieren Porter, Regence Foundation board chair. "The Regence Foundation seeks to increase awareness of the benefits of palliative care among patients and their families, as well as the medical community. Hospitals are a key component in making this type of care available to patients at any stage of diagnosis."

The grant will fund the hospital’s implementation of the interdisciplinary plan it developed in 2010 with the help of a Regence Foundation grant that included training through the Palliative Care Leadership Center (PCLC), a national training and mentoring initiative to help hospitals start and expand high-quality palliative care programs.

"Our overarching goal is to improve patient care and satisfaction and to relieve the emotional stress of our patients and their families," said Dennis Mesaros, chief operating officer of Providence Centralia Hospital. "We plan to accomplish this through closely coordinated hospital-based services including pain management, medical social work, spiritual and emotional support and related assistance. Palliative care is consistent with one of the key tenets of our mission – compassion."

The grant to Providence Centralia is part of The Regence Foundation’s Sojourns™ grantmaking program to promote hospital- and community-based palliative care services. Through Sojourns™, The Foundation aims to foster best practices, leadership and collaboration that help people with life-threatening and incurable illness to access quality palliative care in their own community.